KusPus

Local-only voice-to-text for Windows. Privacy-First.

KusPus is a floating, hotkey-driven dictation app for Windows. Hold Left Ctrl + Left Win, speak, release. The transcript pastes into whatever app you're in — terminal, browser, Slack, IDE, anywhere with a text field. Everything runs on your machine. No cloud, no account, no telemetry.

Built in C# + WPF on .NET 10 with whisper.cpp (CPU). A from-scratch Windows rewrite of WhisprFlow / FloatingRecorder for macOS.

Status: v1.0.0. Installer on Releases.

Quick start

1. Download KusPus-Setup-v1.0.0.exe from Releases.
2. Click Run Anyways (SmartScreen Alert — KusPus is unsigned by design.)
3. Run the installer. No admin prompt. ~155 MB on disk; bundles whisper.exe + tiny.en model so first launch is fully offline.
4. Hit Left Ctrl + Left Win, speak, release.

See docs/INSTALL.md for SmartScreen / Defender / SAC walkthroughs.

Privacy

Microphone audio, transcripts, and clipboard contents never leave your device. The only network traffic is:

• HuggingFace model downloads — user-initiated only, from Preferences → Models.
• Opt-in Sentry crash reports — default OFF, path-scrubbed before send.

Both are gated by an Offline Mode toggle. With it on, all HttpClient instances refuse non-allowlisted hosts via EgressAllowlistHandler — defense-in-depth even if the UI misfires. Verifiable in source: src/KusPus.App/EgressAllowlistHandler.cs, src/KusPus.Core/Telemetry/CrashScrubber.cs.

Contributing

Contributors welcome. KusPus is a one-person project that wants to be more. If you use it and want it to be better, the easiest ways to help:

• Report bugs — open an issue with repro steps + a log slice from %LOCALAPPDATA%\KusPus\logs\.
• Try a roadmap item — pick anything from "What's next" below and open an issue to claim it before starting.
• Improve install docs — every tester hits SmartScreen/Defender/SAC differently; PRs to docs/INSTALL.md with new screenshots or AV-specific notes are gold.

Dev setup is in docs/BUILD.md. The architecture overview is in docs/ARCHITECTURE.md. PRs should keep the build at 0 warnings, 0 errors (the project sets TreatWarningsAsErrors=true) and add tests for new behavior where the existing test projects cover similar code.

What's next

Post-v1.0 work, roughly prioritized:

v1.1 — Speed + reach

• Vulkan GPU backend for larger Whisper models (base.en, small.en).
• Multilingual / Hinglish transcription (bundled tiny multilingual model + language picker).
• Custom-model import UI.
• Custom dictionary via Whisper's --prompt flag (bias for proper nouns, jargon, names).
• Better install troubleshooting page with screenshots.

v1.2 — Polish + trust

• Long-mode chunk-on-VAD streaming on a second hotkey — keep talking, paste on natural pauses, no need to remember to release.
• Encrypted history (SQLCipher).
• Portable mode (no installer, run from a folder).
• Hotkey conflict detection.
• Diagnostic export ("attach this zip to a bug report").

v1.3+

• Native ARM64 build (Surface Pro X / Snapdragon X).
• CUDA / DirectML backends.
• Cross-platform Rust core shared with the Mac original.

Suggestions welcome — open an issue if there's something missing.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.

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Built solo by Devang Kumawat. Designer-engineer.
Local · Privacy · First